For the last month and one-half, we have been in the season of Epiphany. During Epiphany the identity of the little child whose birth we celebrated during the Christmas season, is fully revealed. Ephiphany culminates on Transfiguration Sunday - today. Today we remember the awesome event that happened on a mountaintop as the identity of Jesus was fully revealed in a dramatic and remarkable way. After that event, there is no more doubt about Jesus’ identity in the minds of his followers – He is the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of the Living God.
Deep inside – I think that we all long for a hero. When I was a little boy – my hero was my dad. When I was with him, I didn’t think that anything could go wrong. The dark wasn’t scary – with my dad. Bullies were no problem – with my dad. With my dad, where we would eat or sleep was never an issue - even when traveling on the road (dad was a truck driver). We long for heroes because we often need help.
Most of us have something nagging at us deep inside that tells us that we are not quite there. Whether those concerns are quotidian – struggles with daily life and relationships; or economic – where is my next meal, car or house payment coming from; or existential – why am I here – what’s my purpose; or soteriological – is there a hope and salvation from the trials and agonies of this life; and hopefully – all of us here are at the point where we recognize that we have an ontological problem – a problem with our very being – that our soul has a God-shaped vacuum – and image of something that was lost - that can only be filled by God. To one degree or another, deep inside all of us know that we need something or somebody that we can look up to – that we can count on – that won’t let us down.
Hollywood has made hey out of ordinary people becoming movie saviors - from Pierre Picaud being transformed into the Count of Monte Cristo, to Clark Kent morphing into Superman, to Thomas Anderson becoming Neo in the movie The Matrix, to Paul Atreides becoming Maud’Dib, the messiah figure in the movie Dune (Duna). All of these appeal to this yearning for a savior – a rescuer – somebody that can come in and restore the messes in our lives. Of course, as far as savior / messiah figures these all have one problem – they are all fictional characters! We need a real savior / messiah!
Our transfiguration text today is pretty straight-forward. Jesus takes Peter, James and John with Him to a mountaintop to pray. As they are praying, Jesus was changed before them. The Gospel-writer, St. Mark tells us that Jesus’ clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. What had been masked in human form gave way to the reality that it enfolded. God peeked through and allowed people to get a glimpse of his shekinah – the aura that surrounds God. Here we see that Jesus is not a mere mortal. Here we see that Jesus’ identity is extra-terrestrial in the most incredible way – He was very God of very God, Light of Light, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father – Who existed before the world was created and by Whom the heavens and the earth were made.
One of the questions that I’ve had when thinking about the super heros who have an alter-ego is, “Why all the drama?” Goodness gracious – why doesn’t Clark Kent just say that he is Superman? Why hide out as Peter Parker when you are Spiderman or Bruce Wayne when you are Batman? I suppose that it would be fair to ask the question, “Jesus – why mask your identity as God by veiling it in human form?”
There are important reasons for this. One of the critical ones is the fact that man cannot survive when exposed to the holiness of God. God Himself tells us that man – in our sinful state – will die if see God face to face. [Tell the story of Moses in the cleft of the rock here]. So Jesus needed to veil his divinity to be God with us.
Another reason that Jesus needed to take on the form of a man was so that He could be our substitute. Jesus did everything that God required in the Law of Moses. He fulfilled it perfectly. Then He offered that perfection to us – from one man to another, as it were. As true man, Jesus also took on our sinfulness. He was man so that He could be weighed down with the guilt of all men. Then, as a man, He offered Himself as our substitute – He took that assumed sinfulness to the Cross and paid the penalty for it on our behalf. So God was not simply trying to hide out in a Jesus alter-ego, He chose that as the way to restore all of us to a state of perfection.
It was important for what happened on the mountaintop that day to have witnesses – people who could testify to what they saw. And we know that Jesus’ incredible transformation was attested to by Peter James and John. But there were two others present on that mountaintop whose testimony was critical. You see, Jesus was about to turn the religious world upside down. He was going to change what for generations had been worship based on God’s revelation through Moses and the prophets.
Moses was the quintessential representative of the Law of God. God had chosen him, after all, to receive the Law and to take it to the people. So Moses was present as Jesus revealed his identity and mission so that the weight of what Moses represented could be seen as giving its support to Jesus’ mission.
Another figure present was Elijah. Elijah was the quintessential prophet of the Old Testament. He had been God’s mighty and bold prophet who had confronted the prophets of Ba’al, through whom God who had raised the widow’s dead son, who was taken up in a chariot of fire at the end of his ministry. And Elijah was present on the mountaintop to put his seal of approval on what Jesus was about to undertake.
Moses and Elijah’s presence were important because, in a sense, they were passing the baton to Jesus. In reality, they were there to say, Lord what you began with us is now finally being fulfilled in You. Listen, this is a poor analogy, but certainly one that can illustrate the point: When Barrack Obama won the presidential election, one of the first people to congratulate him was the 43rd President – George Bush. Even though there are deep ideological fractures between the Republican and Democratic parties, the sense that the country is above these differences was underscored as President Bush congratulated and wished success to the new, incoming President.
In the same way, Moses and Elijah were there as witnesses. What Jesus was ushering in was a radical departure from what God had used them to institute, but they were there to say that Jesus was their Lord and that all that God had begun through the Law and the Prophets would find its perfection and fulfillment in Christ.
Can you imagine what was going in the minds of Peter, James and John? It was a pretty cool time for them. They were in a great place on that mountaintop with Jesus and a couple of their own heroes, Moses and Elijah. In fact, Peter was so over-taken by the moment that he offered to set up some shelters there so that everybody could just sort of hang out there – right on the mountaintop. I think all of us would have done the same. Good times are good times and we don’t want them to end.
Our own mountaintops compete with God too! We sort of want to build our own shelters and remain in what we perceive to be high points in our lives. We know that what Jesus did was important – but, hey, there are some things that are important in our lives now. We like what God has to offer us, but it ain’t no plasma TV. The here and now – our own mountaintops - competes for the gifts of God. Sometimes it takes a bit of a shock to get us to recognize what matters and a shock was coming!
The shock factor was provided by the appearance of another witness. The text says: Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Witnesses are important. We’ve had Moses and Elijah on the stand. But the One speaking now cannot be ignored. He not only affirms Jesus’ identity as the Divine Christ, but in effect tells the disciples – and us - to reorder their sense of priorities – that what Jesus came to accomplish was of utmost importance – Listen to Him!
And Jesus was going to tell them that they needed to come down the mountain. They were going back down to Jerusalem. They were going down to see how Jesus would be betrayed; how He would be beaten; how He would wear a crown of thorns; how He would be spat upon by the very creatures that owed their life to Him; how He would be killed – on a Cross.
Ph.D Astrophysicist Laura Whitlock estimates that the number of stars in the universe is 1021. Each one of these was put in its place by One Whom the scriptures say spoke the universe into existence. Among the clusters of stars made by this God is one grouping that is known as the Milky Way Galaxy. Out toward the edge of that galaxy, is a little, insignificant grouping of planets orbiting a yellow dwarf star. The third planet in this little cluster of planets is called earth. This amazing Creator God chose to be born on that planet at a time and place. It is good to know that this incredible God decided to go up a mountainside to pray and to give his followers a glimpse of his identity. It is good to know that this amazing God chose to climb back down from that hillside – to suffer and die on the Cross – for you – for me. And beloved – it is good for us to know that He did it because He loves us. Who died for you? – Jesus – the God Who made you and loved you enough to give his life for you. Amen.
